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Google honors Polish Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka, but who was she?

Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
An exterior view of a sign featuring a photo of artist Tamara de Lempicka at the 'Tamara de Lempicka, Queen of the Art Deco' exhibition opening at La Pinacotheque on April 17, 2013 in Paris, France.

Lempicka, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1898, grew up with a love of art, which spanned from Italian Renaissance paintings to the post-cubism work of French painters Maurice Denis and André Lhote.

Gallery technicians at Sotheby's auction house adjust paintings by Tamara de Lempicka entitled 'Portrait de la Duchesse de la Salle' from 1925 (C), and 'Le Telephone II' from 1930 (L) next to another painting by the artist, 'Portrait de Marjorie Ferry' from 1932, that were up for auction on April 21, 2009 in London, England.

Gallery technicians at Sotheby's auction house adjust paintings by Tamara de Lempicka entitled 'Portrait de la Duchesse de la Salle' from ... read more

Known for her Art Deco tributes to the Roaring Twenties, the Polish artist, who peaked in the 1930s, used bold figures, muted color palettes and unexpected compositions in her glamorous portraiture. In her work, Lempicka would feature the prominent stars and aristocrats around her and developed a penchant for highly-stylized nudes.

During her career, she painted people like Spain’s King Alfonso XIII and Greece’s Queen Elizabeth.

“Few artists embodied the exuberant roaring twenties more than than Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka,” doodle illustrator Matthew Cruickshank wrote in the Google blog. “Her fast paced, opulent lifestyle manifests itself perfectly into the stylized Art-Deco subjects she celebrated in her paintings.”

In addition to her unique paintings, Lempicka was also known for bisexuality, often speaking publicly about her affairs with both men and women. She was also openly involved with nightclub singer Suzy Solidor in the 1920s.

“De Lempicka depicted the shifting morals of a Paris where nothing was precisely what it seemed. She lived and worked on the bisexual fringes of a society where there were no rules beyond the demands of style and entertainment,” the Guardian reported in 2004.

According to The Sun, Lempicka moved to the United States after the outbreak of World War II and lived in Beverly Hills, New York and later, after her second husband’s death in 1961, Houston, Texas. That’s where Lempicka’s only child, a daughter from her first marriage, lived.

She later moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Lempicka died on March 18, 1980. She was 81.

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